Paul Dacre: ‘last of his kind’ tabloid heavyweight snubbed for a peerage

In many ways, Dacre was the “last of his kind” wrote media editor Amol Rajan for the BBC when Dacre stepped down from his role as editor of the Mail in 2018. “When he entered the profession in the early 1970s, British newspapers had a degree of influence that they do not have now” and throughout his time at the paper, his influence was such that “he both channelled and shaped the conservatism of middle-class Britain beyond London”, said Rajan. And although he is undoubtedly “hated by many of his fellow countrymen” we should not forget “the verdict of millions of readers who considered his paper value for money for decades”.

Under his editorship, in 2013 the Mail ran an article that was heavily critical of Ralph Miliband – the late father of then-Labour leader Ed Miliband, and who had arrived in the UK in 1940 as a refugee from the holocaust – dubbing him “the man who hated Britain”. The article drew heavy criticism from across the political spectrum.

But Dacre was also widely lauded for his paper’s campaign to bring the killers of Stephen Lawrence to justice. In 1997, the paper plastered the five men accused of the teenager’s killing on their front page, running the headline: “Murderers: The Mail accuses these men of killing”. It continued: “If we are wrong, let them sue us.”

Action against Associated Newspapers

Dacre returned to take up his role at Associated Newspapers in 2021, which had been hit by a lawsuit alleging “gross breaches of privacy” from several high-profile figures including Elton John, Liz Hurley, Sadie Frost, and Doreen Lawrence, mother of Stephen Lawrence.

Given the Mail’s campaign to bring her son’s killers to justice, Lawrence’s legal action against Associated Newspapers is “particularly notable” said The Guardian, and it is “understood the allegations brought by Lawrence include information gathered about her, her family and associates before the Mail supported the family” with the now infamous “Murderers” headline, added the paper. 

Associated Newspapers has strongly denied the allegations. A spokesman for the company said: “These unsubstantiated and highly defamatory claims – based on no credible evidence – appear to be simply a fishing expedition by claimants and their lawyers, some of whom have already pursued cases elsewhere.”

‘Infelicitous dalliance with the Blob’

Downing Street had been planning to nominate Dacre, alongside about a dozen others, for a peerage “as recently as Friday”, reported The Telegraph, and although there appears to have been a “late change of heart”, it is thought Dacre is likely to appear on Johnson’s resignation honours list, which was submitted to the House of Lords Appointments Commission this week, and is set to be announced around Christmas.

Dacre had been Johnson’s top choice to take over as the chairman of media watchdog Ofcom but was ultimately rejected for the job by a Civil Service recruitment panel.

The Times quoted him as describing his experience of applying for the role as an “infelicitous dalliance with the Blob” – a term used to describe those working in Whitehall – and claimed that senior figures in Whitehall wanted to exclude anyone with right-wing views and “strong convictions” from being appointed to a senior public sector role.

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/society/958229/paul-dacre-tabloid-heavyweight-who-is-the-last-of-his-kind-snubbed-for-a